Night Deposit

Chapter 2 "Women and their secrets"

Copyright @ calibeachgirl

All rights reserved, 2011

Love is a strange thing. It demands constant attention, care and devotion. It is hard to get, harder to keep and easy to wither and die.

I was brought abruptly back to the present by the waitress asking if we wanted dessert. My beautiful, wonderful Belle made a pretense of looking at the menu but I knew she would choose the New York cheesecake with strawberries and I, the good American that I thought I was, asked for apple pie.

I looked across the table at Belle, her bright smile greeting me, giving me the emotional support she knew I needed with such a surprise staring us in the face.

"Are you all right, honey? I mean, you know..." Her worried look betrayed the smile she tried to keep.

"Yes, Belle, I'm OK... it's just that..." I shook my head in disgust, repulsed at what Nancy had done to me all those years ago and yet, I thanked God each day for my Belle who loved me unconditionally.

"It's too bad," she said, "that it all happened, especially for her." Her hand took mine and squeezed it lovingly.

"Yes, it is... God, she's in such bad shape. We haven't seen her in how long?" I knew how long it was and so did Belle... down to the second.

"You haven't seen her in nineteen years, eight months, twenty-two days." She laughed. "Do you want to know how many hours and minutes, too?"

"My God, how on earth?" I was both amazed and frightened that she had kept such close attention.

"I'll never forget that first time, baby, never. Oh, good, here's dessert. Want to share?" She must be trying to make me feel so much better. Belle never shared her dessert.

"I'll never share you with anyone, Belle, never. You're my life." She seemed more than satisfied at my words of affection and took that first spoonful of cheesecake and offered it to my lips.

I licked her spoon clean and she then whispered, "You want to lick something else tonight? I know I do." Her smile gave promise to the rest of the evening.

As usual, she didn't want any of my apple pie. As I slowly ate it, small bite by small bite, my mind returned to that insane night in 1964...

The employees' lounge was upstairs and overlooked the lobby. Still in Alisa's office, we heard several voices, including Nancy's, move noisily up the stairs. I got up and Alisa joined me walking out to the building's lobby. Standing near the back door opening to the parking lot, I watched as she went to the tellers' windows where she could signal me when my wife came downstairs.

The sound of laughter grew as people returned to the main floor. Alisa nodded her head slightly. If I wasn't looking for it, I would have missed it; around the corner came Nancy wearing a short dark orange skirt and what I guessed was a light yellow silk blouse. As nice as her clothes were, I had never seen them before, but then, I had never seen the dress from Friday night, either. My wife had a whole other life that didn't include me or our future together.

With his arm possessively around her waist was the man who I took to be Jerry... the man who, at that moment, I would have had no problems butchering like the pig he was.

They didn't notice me until they stopped where I was standing in front of the door. There wasn't any shock or surprise on my part although I was completely heartbroken to witness her deliberate betrayal. I wasn't too sure what was going on in her mind. I had already faced my demons Friday night... and Saturday... and Sunday... and this morning in the doctor's office.

Jerry didn't have a clue who I was and stood there smiling at me. I thought about taking that stupid grin off his face but then I noticed that Nancy wasn't wearing her wedding ring. It was, I thought, entirely possible he didn't even know she was married but then I remembered her phone call to him Saturday morning to this piece of trash.

Nancy had that 'deer in the headlights' look I had heard about so many times but had never really seen 'till now. At least it was gratifying to see some emotional response from her.

"Hi," I said. I put my hands in my pockets, trying to look cool but feeling anything but.

"Hello," he replied. He held her tighter to him, in his mind setting a boundary between the two of them and me. It was a subconscious move on his part but quite evident to me, working around teenagers all day long. I wanted to kill him that moment. He seemed to become a little nervous since I had not moved out of his 'space' and looked around for Canton to unlock the door.

"So," I asked, "big plans for tonight?" I smiled, actually enjoying myself for the first time in days.

"Yes, my girl and I are going to dinner and then a little dancing." He winked, letting me in on his little joke. Horizontal dancing was more like it... and evidently, not the first time, either.

"Well, that sounds pretty nice." I turned to my wife. "I'm here to take you to that birthday party, Nancy. The car's just outside." I reached for her hand with my left and and then I touched her cheek with my right, caressing her face so gently, so lovingly, thinking back to the good times we had.

"Hey! Wait a minute!" He put his hand out and pushed me back into the glass doors. The loud thump caught everyone's attention and they all turned to look. I could see several of the men starting to walk toward us even though they seemed unsure as to what was actually happening. I figured they thought that two co-workers were having some kind of trouble and decided to intercede before it got out of hand, probably by trying to put the beat-down on me.

I had expected he would do something like that so hitting the glass didn't do much except for the noise.

"Don't touch my girlfriend, asshole." He brought his hand up again. I don't know what the hell he was thinking. I already had him on assault and battery and he still didn't know who I was... I could have been a serial killer for all he knew or, as was the case, a very angry possessive husband.

Nancy had retreated; her hands covering her face, trying to make it all go away.

His hand came toward my chest, again. You know how some people say it happened so fast they didn't see it coming? For me, it all happened in slow motion and whatever instinctive training was still buried somewhere in the back of my mind surfaced with a vengeance. All my frustration with the miserable situation exploded in his face.

One of the strangest concepts that men, well, people for that matter, seem to have is to not fight 'dirty.' It's a fight! There's no such thing as a 'fair' fight.

I gripped his hand with my left and bent his little finger to the side violently, breaking it. He screamed like the pig he was. Just for good measure, I worked my way through the rest of his fingers, bending back and breaking each one in turn and he fell to his knees as he screamed and screamed each time I heard another 'snap.'. He would remember that night for at least six weeks with his hand splinted up, for the rest of his life.

"Don't touch my wife, asshole!"

I moved across the lobby to the wall and leaned against it, still trying to look as cool as possible. The men who had been approaching realized the situation wasn't the one they thought and backed away. With Jerry on the floor whimpering like a child, I bent over and whispered into his ear. "You know, I'm going to kill you if you're still in town tomorrow morning." It sounded pretty good even though there was no way I was going to prison for killing a miserable bastard like him.

I wasn't going to let her get away that easily and said in a just loud enough voice to be heard, "What about the birthday party? Have you changed your mind? I came here just to take you there and spend some time with you. Who's your friend, anyway?"

I nudged his hand with my shoe, causing another scream to break the silence that had filled the building.

Nancy turned around and was torn between looking at him and staring at me, her husband. I could see the other women smiling that cold-blooded smile that only women could.

She knelt down next to him and said something. It seemed like she spent an inordinate amount of time on the floor, buying time.

I couldn't hear what she was saying, but I didn't care. Her reaction was answer enough for me but I was having too much fun with the situation.

"I'm ready to go home, now," she said, looking for Mr. Canton to unlock the door to the parking lot.

"Take me home," she said sternly as quietly as she could.

There was a chorus of laughter now, not directed at me but at Nancy. For a split second, I wondered if I had taken it too far but then just said, "Fuck it."

By this time, Canton had unlocked the door and Nancy had fled into the relative quiet of the parking lot. There was my Chevy and she made a bee-line for it, waiting for me to unlock it, tapping her foot like a woodpecker attacking a tree and striking an attitude. I couldn't believe that she was still acting as if everything was my fault. Whatever happened to the girl that showed up occasionally to love me?

After I unlocked the door, she slid in as fast as she could and when I started to close it, she grabbed the handle and pulled it hard enough that it slammed.

Damn! I've told her not to do that so many times it had become a nervous mantra with me. I so wanted to hit her at that point and amazed myself. I was angrier that she continually disrespected my old car than I was knowing she either had or would try to cheat on me with Jerry... someone I planned on destroying whether he left town or not. For a moment, I could see both of them lying side by side out in the Mojave... or weighted and dropped over the side from a small boat in the San Pedro Channel. A couple dozen other scenarios played out in my mind before I put the key into the ignition and started the car, it's V-8 rumbling in the quiet night.

"Not feeling well, again? Is that what happened? Was he taking you home so I could take care of you?" I glanced sideways enough to see her just staring out of the abused side window.

It had reached that time of the evening when there was just a hint of daylight left and the lights were already on. When I was a child, I would squint my eyes and let the lights turn to hazy colors. I thought it was Christmas each time and wondered why there were no gifts when we arrived home.

The disappointment of the lost gifts had never been equaled until these last few days. As much as Santa was dead, so was my love for her. At best, it was in a hospital bed with everyone around crying at the impending demise.

At that moment, I was ready to bring flowers to the gravesite. I still wondered if she had already completed her deed with Jerry and whether it would make any difference.

I knew I had to speak to Nancy about the syphilis she had contracted and passed on to me... I just didn't know how to go about it without a lot of screaming and yelling, mostly on my part.

As a coach, I knew that sometimes a good defense was a good offense and decided to just tell her.

We were sitting in the living room, watching television. That's not true; the television was on but neither she nor I were really watching or even listening to it. I got up and turned it off.

I had brought out a plate of Oreos and we seemed to be more interested in the cookies than in each other.

"Nancy, is there something you really, really want to talk about? I mean, you and me?"

"Nancy, I have to tell you something that you're not going to like very much... I'm sorry."

"What are you talking about, Vince? What have you done?"

I could see that she was getting angry and I hadn't even brought to the forefront what was the matter this time.

"I had to see the doctor the other day."

I let that hang in the air while I picked up another cookie and popped it into my mouth. The dry cookie halves broke apart and I could feel the coldness of the white filling. The bad thing about eating Oreos is that the dark cookie crumbs coated my mouth and get in between my teeth.

"I went to see the doctor because I didn't know if I had caught VD, somehow." Now, I had her attention and I could see her lips begin to pout.

"What do you mean? What have you been doing? Are you cheating on me?"

"No, I've never been with another woman before or since we've been married. You should know that about me."

It took a moment but the realization of what I had said was now evident as redness soon covered her face.

"Well?" I asked, hoping to get some answer to all my unasked questions.

"Well, what? What do you want, Vince?" She got up from the couch and walked into the bedroom. By the time I got there, she was on the bed, her arm over her eyes. I closed the drapes, plunging the room into darkness and quietly closed the door as I left.

A couple of hours later, I was still sitting on a patio chair in the back yard. There was a knock on the gate and Al walked in.

"Hey," he said. "Now, what's going on?"

"I know and I don't know and I care and I don't care.

"Want a beer?" I gestured toward the cooler. I never drank before and now I was trying to do something. I had no idea, still.

"No, thanks, and you shouldn't either, Vince. You're going to end up a lousy drunk if you keep this up."

The key didn't work. There were new locks on the door and several boxes on the porch. I opened one up and saw my clothes inside.

"You bitch, lock me out of my house, will you?" I spoke angrily.

I went to the garage. She had forgotten all about the padlock and it was still the same one; I opened the door and went to my tool bench. Picking up my sledgehammer, I went back to the front door and broke it open. I had considered just breaking a window but this was so much more satisfying.

The door slammed back into the house and hit the wall, bouncing back slightly.

"Honey, I'm home!"

She was not home but her clothes were. Did she actually think she could lock me out of my own home, bought years ago? I started taking her clothes into the back yard and piling them up. I found several dresses like the red one. A yellow one that I found very arousing had convinced me she was a cheating, lying slut. On to the pile they went.

When I was satisfied with my handiwork, I took the lighter fluid from the grill and sprayed the liquid over the clothes. After flicking a match onto the pile, I went to get the hose. While I was happy with burning everything she owned, I didn't want to lose the house nor have fire department and police show up.

This was better, I thought, to keep it small enough that it wouldn't get out of hand.

Going back into the house and getting a couple of Buds, I popped one open, took a long, cold swallow and sat down to watch the pyre lighting up the yard.

A half-hour later, it was over and I soaked the lawn thoroughly for the next five minutes. Her shoes took longer than I expected, but they, too, succumbed to the blaze.

I went back into the house and out the front door to the garage to get some of the long nails I used on the fence; I nailed the front door shut.

Eleven o'clock that night, I was awakened by pounding on the front door.

At first, I didn't know where I was, sleeping on the couch. I refused to return to the bed we had shared. I just knew she had brought her lovers home and into what was once our bed.

I considered just ignoring her screams. I lay there on the couch, listening to the door slightly shake from her two fists.

"Goddamn you, Vince, open the fucking door!"

Now, I was truly amazed at her. Never once during what I considered our marriage had she ever spoken such vulgarities. In a way, it was a fitting end to our relationship.

Sadly, for her, though, her new lover had dropped her off at the curb and left. Jerry took my advice to heart and disappeared. She stood on the porch, staring at the door. After a while, she sat down on the cement step, leaned against the door and cried.

I no longer cared.

A while later, a police car arrived and the two officers walked up to the porch. By then, she was shivering for the night air had chilled considerably.

"What's the problem?" the older of the two asked.

"I can't get in my house. He locked me out."

The officer used his flashlight to light up the door and saw the damage and knocked on the door. "Police! Open the door!"

I knew I had been naïve but I had never considered myself stupid, at least before now. I remembered enough from my high school government class to know that without a search warrant, the two policemen on the porch were going nowhere... fourth amendment, fifth amendment, one of them, anyways.

Still, I thought, it would be interesting to see how it might play out. I got off the couch and stretched, trying to get the kinks out of my back.

I walked over to the front windows and opened one just a crack so we could talk without shouting.

"Hello," I said, casually. "Is there a reason you're on my porch at this hour of the night and who is that woman with you?"

"She says she lives here and that you locked her out. What's the deal?"

"Well... first off, she doesn't live here... I have no idea who she is. I had a wife but she disappeared some time ago and I haven't seen her since. It's too bad; I really loved her with all my heart."

Nancy started crying, again.

An idea came to me.

"Does she have any ID on her?" She had left her purse locked in the Stingray now it was locked in my brother's garage.

The man looked at her and asked if she had any proof she lived there. She sadly shook her head 'no.'

"Wait a minute," said I. "I'll be right back." I went into the back bedroom that was to have been a nursery some day and unlocked my desk. Going through several papers, I found the deed to the house. "I better get this to B of A and into a deposit box," I said to no one.

Taking the paper back to the window, I held it up to the glass and said, "Take a look. There's only one owner of this house and that is me. Now, would you please let me get some sleep and take that woman with you. Or, you can arrest her now for trespassing or something. Look what happened to my door. This is going to cost a lot of money to fix."

"You're going to have to come with us."

She sat in the back of the police car, humiliated; many of our neighbors had come out onto their front lawns to watch.

I found out much, much later what happened after that.

At the station, they gave her the opportunity to make a call but her lover wasn't home. She stood at the pay phone, agitatedly wondering where he was.

She tried Delores but Bob answered the phone.

"What do you want, Nancy?"

"I'm sorry, Robert. I didn't know who to call. Can you and Delores come down to the police station and let me spend the night with you?"

"What about your husband? Where's Vince?"

"He... he's not available, right now. Please?"

"Well, Nancy, it's like this... Vince called me and told me what's been going on and Delores no longer lives here. I threw her out. She's a lying, cheating whore just like you."

He slammed the phone down and all she could hear was the impersonal dial tone. A single tear formed and slid down her now dirty cheek.

Her parents had left the week before to Yosemite. There was no one left to call.

How could it have gone so wrong, she must have wondered. She had a plan. It was working. It should have worked... after all, she had a plan.

The next morning, she tried again and Don finally answered the phone. A while later, after eating an egg and some bacon she showered in his apartment.

"What happened? You told me everything was fine."

"I don't know... somehow, he found out. It must have been when the car was... shit, he took the car! Damn it!

"Now, what? And, where were you, last night?"

"I was at a friend's house; you know him, at Mike's. We had a poker party. I'm not your dumb ass husband," he said. "Unless we're exclusive, don't act this way."